Stringed musical instrument



M y '20, 1930. DODSON ET AL STRINGE'D MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Filed Oct. 24.192'? leflrzafdfifldfan M (142771 5 2 9450% INVENTORS A! TORNEY PatentedMay 20, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LEONARD DODSON AND JAMESDODSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS STRINGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Applicationfiled October 24, 1927. Starla 1N0. 228,415.

This invention relates to certain novel im- Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 arefragmental side provements in stringed musical instruments viewsdepicting various modifications of and comprises the novel combinationand mounting the melody strings on the anchorarrangement of partshereinafter described ing element depicted in Fig. 2.

and claimed. Fig. 9 is a sectional detail view taken on 55 It is amongthe ob]ects of our invention to the line 99 on Fig. 8. provide a musicalinstrument of the fore- Fig. 10 is a partially diagrammatic side goingnamed character which will embody an elcvational view of the device asillustrated arrangement whereby certain of the strings in Fig. 1.

10 thereof may be operated on by a suitable Referring to the drawingswherein the 60 instrument so as to produce melody while preferredembodiment of our invention is others of the strings thereof may beoperated illustrated, it may be seen that we provide thereon so as toproduce accompanying a sound box 10 substantially similar to the chordsto said melody. sound box of a typical so called string in- Anotherobject of the invention is to prostrument. In the present instance weshow 5 vide an arrangement whereby the melody the sound box 10 as beingsubstantially recstrings may be arranged in groups and such tangular butit is to be understood that it that said strings will be disposed insubmight be formed of any desired and suitable stantially parallelrelation. configuration. An opening 11 is provided A further object ofthe invention is to in the top wall of the sound box for purposes 7arrange the melody strings such that one of well understood in the art.the ends thereof will be connected to suit- On the upper side of thesound box 10 at able tuning posts and such that the other each endthereof blocks 11 and 12 are mounted end thereof will be connected tomountings and strips 13 and 14 are secured to said arranged such thatthe playing implement upper side and are disposed so as to extend may bereadily shifted from one of said between said blocks 11 and 12contiguous strings to the other and such that said im-' the edges of thesound box 10. plement will act on only one of said strings JuXtaposedthe inner transverse edge of when in certain positions. the block 11, afret 15 is secured and mounted A still further object of the invent-ionis on the upper side of the block 11 behind fret to provide a musicalinstrument of the fore- 15 and disposed in staggered relation, are agoing character which will be simple and plurality of tuning posts ofthe usual form economical in construction and simple in which areindicated in drawings by 16. It is operation. desirable that the blocks11 and 12 and the Other objects will appear hereinafter. strips 18 and14: be of equal height. As is The invention consists in the novelcomclearly shown in Fig. 1, at spaced apart in bination and arrangementof parts to be heretervals along the strips 13 and 14 anchoring inafterdescribed and claimed. elements 17 are mounted in aligned relation.

The invention will be best understood by As is clearly shown in Fig. 2the anchoring reference to the accompanying drawings, elements 17include screw threaded lower 99 showing the preferred form ofconstruction end portions 18 and in the upper surfaces and in. which:thereof a groove 19 is provided. An opening Fig. 1 is a plan elevationalView of a pre- 21 is provided in the anchoring element 17 ferredembodiment of our invention. a and extends therethrough in parallelrela- Fig. 2 is a perspective detail view of the tion to the groove 19.$5

securing element for the end of the melody One of the ends of each ofthe melody strings opposite the end secured to the tunstrings 20 isindividually connected to the ing posts. anchoring elements 17 in amanner to be de- Fig. 3 is a detail view taken substantially scribed andthen the strings are brought up on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1. along theanchoring elements and are disposed in the grooves 19 in the headsthereof in a manner such that less than one-half of the diameter of thestring will be disposed in the groove so that the major portion thereofwill be disposed above the upper extent of the element 17. From thegrooves 1.9 the melody strings 20 extend through slots in the fret andthen each of the ends are respectively connected to one of the tuningposts 16. The melody strings are disposed so as to extend between thetuning posts 16 and the anchoring elements 17 in a manner such that thestrings representing the notes of a diatonic scale will be suitablyarranged and such arrangement will be readily apparent to any oneskilled in the art.

' Asisbest illustrated in Fig. 10 the anchoring elements 17 which arelocated nearest to the fret 15 are of greater height than the anchoringelements 17 which are located most remote from said fret and theanchoring elements interposed between the above named elements are eachsuccessively shorter than the element uxtaposed thereto on the sidethereof towards said fret. Therefore, it is apparent that when anoperating implement such as a violin bow is drawn across one of themelody strings, preferably adjacent the anchoring element. forsaidstring, said how will not contact with the other of the stringssince they will lie in a lower horizontal plane. As is apparent byreferring to Fig. 1, the anchor ing elements on the strips 13 and 14 areequally spaced apart on said strips and are also disposed inlongitudinal alignment thereon. It will also be noted that the anchoringelements are in alignment transversely of the sound box 10. Onearrangement of the melody strings 20 is that the string for the firstnote of the diatonic scale will be led to the first anchoring element onthe strip 13 while the string for the second note will be led to thefirst anchoring element on the strip 14 and the string for the thirdnote will be led to the second anchoring element on the strip 13 andthis manner of connecting is carried out until each of the tuning posts16 and anchoring elements 17 have interconnected.

The ends of the melody strings 20 adapted to be connected to theanchoring elements 17 may be fixed thereto in a number of differentways. The anchoring elements 17 are adapted to be screw threaded intosuitable openings in the strips 13 and 14. In Fig. 3 we show the portion18 of the anchoring elements 17 as also entering the upper side of thesound box 10.

In Fig. 3 we show the melody string 20 as being directed through theroove 19 and then downwardly along the anchoring element 17 and throughthe opening 21. A loop 22 is pro vided on this end of the melody string20 which is adapted to be anchoredin position by being inserted over apin 23 that is angularly driven into the strip 14.

In Fig. 4 we show the end of the melody string 20 which is directedthrough the groove 19 in the outermost of the anchoring elements 17 asbeing led through the opening 21 of said element and then this end islooped around the next succeeding anchoring element as indicated at 24.This construction would be successively carried out with the exceptionof the foremost of the anchoring elements wherein the end of the melodystring may be secured in any approved manner such as that shown in Fig.3. r

In Fig. 5 we show the end of the melody string 20 as being directedthrough the groove 19 and then being led downwardly and having a loop 26formed therein which is inserted over the pin 27 which is angularlydriven into the strip 14. This construction wouldobviate the necessityof the opening 21.

In Fig. 6 we show the end of, the melody string 20 being directedthrough the groove 19 and then downwardly along the anchoring element 17and then through the opening21. A suitable knot such as 28 is thenformed at this end of the string so as to prevent said end passing backthrough the opening 21.

In Fig. 7 the end of the melody string 20 is directed through the groove19 and is then twisted around the anchoringelement 17 and then is ledthrough the opening 21 so as to provide a snubbing action and the end ofthe string bent downwardly as at 29 so as to prevent passage backthrough the opening 21. In Figs. 8 and 9 we depict a constructionwherein the string 20 is led through the groove 19 and then downwardlyover the edge of strip 14 and a loop 30 is provided at the end of thestring which is inserted over a pin 31 which is driven into the side ofthe strip 14 in an angular manner as indicated at Fig. 9. A spacingstrip32 is interposed between the side of the strip 14 and the string 20 soas to prevent the contact of said string with the strip 14. If desired asuitable molding such as 33 may be secured to the side of the strip 14so as to conceal the pins 31 and thus provide a more pleasing appearancefor the instrument.

If so desired, relatively thin strips 34 and 35 may be disposed over thestrips 13 and 14 in the region of the anchoring element 17 as is clearlyillustrated in Fig. 1. Suitable mark ings will be provided on thesestrips which will facilitate the playing of the instrument b y a personnot particularly skilled in music.

As has been pointed out anchoring elements are arranged such that when aviolin bow or the like is drawn across one of the strings adjacent tothe anchoring element thereof said how will not contact with the otherstring. Further, due to the fact that each of the anchoring elements isof a successively greater height than the one juxtaposed thereto andsince the melody strings are led around the anchoring element in thedirection toward the next lowermost post, it is apparent that the bowwill be expeditiously guided onto the succeeding string or onto anystring desired. This formation of the anchoring elements facilitates theguiding of the bow and additional guiding members are not required.

A fret 86 is secured to the upper side of the sound box 10 between thestrips 13 and 14 in spaced relation to the block 11. A fret 37 issecured on the upper side of the block 12 contiguous the inner edgethereof. A plurality of pins 38 are fixed in the upper side of the block10 and are disposed in staggered relation. The pins 38 are preferablydisposed between the fret 36 and the block 11. A plurality of tuningposts 39 are mounted on the upper side of the block 12 and these tuningposts are disposed in staggered relation. A plurality of strings 40 arestretched between the frets 36 and 37 and are connected to the pins 38and the tuning posts 39. The strings 40 are arranged in juxtaposition tothe upper side of the sound box 10 and are arranged in a plane below theplane of strings 20. As is best illustrated in Fig. 1, the strings 40are preferably arranged in grooves. By manipulating through the mediumof a pick in a manner well understood in the art the strings of thegroups chords may be produced for accompaniment with the melody playedon the strings 20.

It is apparent that if desired the blocks 11 and 12 and the strips 13and 14: may be omitted and the appurtenances shown and de scribed asbeing mounted thereon may be directly mounted on the upper side of thesound box 10. WVhile we have illustrated and described the melodystrings as being connected in one manner it is apparent that otheranalogous arrangen'ients might be used without departing from thepurview of our invention. lVe particularly wish to accent the fact thatthe novel formation of the anchoring elements 17 and the method ofsecuring the melody strings thereto provides sufficient guiding meansfor the bow or other playing instrument and thus the necessity ofextraneous guiding elements is obviated.

\Vhile we have illustrated and described the preferred form ofconstruction for carrying our invention into effect, this is capable ofvariation and modification, without departing from the spirit of theinvention. e, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the precisedetails of construction set forth, but desire to avail ourselves of suchvariation and modifications as come Within the scope of the appendedclaims.

Having thus described our invention, What we claim as new and desire toprotect by Letters Patent is:

1. A securing element for musical strings including a body portionhaving an opening extending therethrough, and said body portion having ashallow groove formed in the upper end thereof adapted to extendparallel to said opening.

2. A securing element for musical strings including a body portionhaving an opening extending therethrough, said body portion having ashallow groove formed in the upper end thereof adapted to extendparallel to said opening, the lower end of said body be ing screwthreaded whereby said element may be mounted on a musical instrument.

3. In combination with a stringed musical instrument, an anchoringelement having an opening extending therethrough in the body portionthereof and a shallow groove in the upper end thereof disposed parallelto said opening, the string being disposed in said groove and thendownwardl along said body portion and then through said opening, andmeans on the end of said string adapted to prevent said string passingback through said opening.

1. A securing element for musical strings including a body portionhaving an opening extending therethrough, said body portion having agroove formed in the upper end thereof adapted to be of less width. anddepth than the diameter of the string to be disposed therein, saidgroove being arranged so as to extend through said body portion inparallel relation with said opening.

LEONARD DODSON. JAMES DODSON.

